Scottish Water has said it is to recommence its work in Greenock town centre.

As a result, motorists have been advised that a road traffic management plan will be implemented from mid-September.

The scheme for the town was due to be carried out earlier this summer, but was postponed.

It is part of a £2.9m project by Scottish Water to deliver clearer, fresher drinking water to more than 65,000 people, and involves upgrading more than 27 miles of water mains across Greenock and in Skelmorlie.

Road traffic management is required throughout the works and is being organised with Inverclyde and North Ayrshire Council's roads departments. In agreement, a road closure will be in place in Inverkip Road and Inverkip Street, Greenock, between 18 September 2013 and 8 October 2013.

The road closure on Inverkip Road will be from Bullring roundabout to Bankfoot roundabout on Inverkip Street. To maintain access to the crematorium at the junction of Inverkip Road and South Street, temporary traffic lights will be in operation.


Following this road closure, work will continue with rolling lane closures under temporary four-way traffic lights on Inverkip Street from Bruce Street to Sir Michael Street from 9 to 17 October.

In May, Scottish Water said it had to postpone the work in the area to enable the firm to find a way of maintaining normal water supplies to customers during the scheme.

Mark Maclaren, Scottish Water's Regional Community Manager, said: "We were sorry we had to postpone the work in this area in May. But, as we said at the time, one of our top priorities during any work we carry out is to maintain normal supplies to customers wherever possible.

"We have found a way to do so while carrying out this work so we will now be able to progress with our improvements while minimising any inconvenience to customers.

"We would like to thank affected customers and road users for their cooperation and patience while we improve our network of pipes and we apologise for any inconvenience caused by our work or the road traffic management.

"These road traffic measures will inevitably cause some inconvenience to traffic in Greenock but we hope road-users will appreciate that this short-term inconvenience will be far out-weighed by the long-term benefits our investment will deliver."

Scottish Water's project, which is being carried out for us by contractors George Leslie, began in October 2012. It involves the relining of 18 miles of mains, the cleaning and swabbing of about eight miles of mains and the replacement of about one mile of mains.

(JP/CD)